Think about this.
The RIAA has recently got the DDOS idea.
Then they copmplain about DDOS attacks.
Then they go to the authorities for help.
Attacking all the while.
Who's to say it wasn't them doing it to their own useless site and makign their own examples all along?
They can now effectively make their own crisis, and propagate it as much as they want. Manufacture their own real world crisis and make a million examples of it. Bolster their own statistics. Take down the net until we all have to have a new, copyright secured internet.
I would disagree....
on
Social Robot?
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· Score: 4, Insightful
do they really tell us more about how the brain works? I don't think so - they mostly push the envelope in the field of pattern recognition and imitation.
So pattern recognition and imitation are not considered a part of intelligence now?
Wow. I better call my friends at every elementary school on the planet and tell them to radically change their teaching style.
Reagan denounced the Soviet Union as the "Evil Empire" because of a number of things. They stopped travellers and demanded to see ID/papers/etc. The U.S. is doing that now.
This has to be one of the greatest/. stretches of belief of all time. Honestly, the USA today and the Soviet Empire are similar? Are you getting moved to North Dakota because you hold a dissenting opinion? Are you getting a state-run occupation given to you? I THINK NOT.
Does the current US gov't not let you go from state to state without papers? It is a little different, I would say. The only thing that you have to stop for in the US is if you are hauling cargo, and you have to make sure that you don't break bridges and roads with oversized roads.
They stopped travellers and demanded to see ID/papers/etc.
Well, do you know of a nation that DOES NOT DO THAT? I went to Cozumel, Mexico, a resort island with a planeload of yankees the other day. A man in green fatigues with a rifle was the first person I saw off the plane. IT IS A RESORT ISLAND FOR TOURISTS. Every nation does this. The USA for one had NO REASON TO STICK MILITARY AT THE AIRPORTS BEFORE SEPT. 11. They do now.
They controlled information flow and communications. The U.S. is doing that now.
I am a news photographer for FOX. My best friend at work went to Afghanistan. They could go wherever they pleased IN A WAR ZONE. I have no concept of what you are talking about nor any knowledge of what you claim, but I have videotape in my personal possesion to prove you're lying. If you are saying that the government and I are in bed together, and that I am doing everything in my power to control information to you, then you are a stone cold idiot. I work for an independent news organization. I am not their "friend." Both sides understand the issues that we bring up.
DO YOU EVEN LIVE IN THE USA OR KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE USA ENOUGH TO MAKE THESE KINDS OF STATEMENTS? Apparently not. So take all of your crap karma and pointless, uninformed, anti-USA rhetoric and look up some information before you and your little revolutionista friends start spouting "facts."
Although this is a stretch, I'll get in on this one, because the humanistic issues are astounding. War involves death and destruction, but honestly, it also involves some morals, even to win.
Honestly, the object of war is defeating one's enemies, not destroying them utterly. Creating a machine that might not have sympathy for non-combattants, personal property, innocent victims, or even animals scurrying away seems like a terrible idea. And an utter waste.
Without the concept of losses on your side, you see total coquest as the only way. Total conquest can mean total death. Here is a short version of my argument:
Mechanical weapons have pinned down an group, and that group decides to surrender. The person or entity on the other side of that machine feels no threat to his life, so like an execution, they might just "pull the switch" on them. WHY? It is a colder decision... or that decision is automated for "no quarter" fighting.
Either way, you are not going to feel the sympathy required to cut a break surrendering in battle if you are removed from it. You might let a group surrender if you are getting bullets over the top of your head too, but I find that less likely that you would let them surrender if you were making a decision in a air-conditioned military building in a suburb.
However, if you made them impenetrable pacifying machines instead a weapons platform, then that is an idea. Robots might be used for capture, but using them to kill sounds dreadful.
If the test subjects in the article play anywhere from two to seven hours a day of video games, then either they are on the payroll of the research full time and this is legitimate, or they are holding regular jobs and NOT GETTING ANY SLEEP.
I mean, honestly, how many of us have spent waaaaay too many hours blowing out our REM sleep time and come to work fresh and ready to go?
Seven hours a day! How many of us have not gone on a C&C/Warcraft-Starcraft/Counterstrike/Evercrack/RTC W-Quake-Doom binge and pulled out with a fresh brain? Yeah, right. No one is getting any stupider because of the internet, video games, or television. Perhaps, AND I AM JUST GOING OUT ON A LIMB HERE, maybe there is a correlation between sleep deprivation and decreased Beta wave activity.
Funny, what do you think happened during our war of independence? Surely all of our soldiers in the war were terrorists. I'm sure had the events taken place a few hundred years later you would see us doing similar things as you see here.
The soldiers for the US War of Independence were not terrorists. They were declared combatants fighting for an open and stated (albeit new) government entity and represented the majority opinion of its people. It was a militia. It was open war. They were not attacking civilians. They were attacking military targets to end a conflict.
Also, by the definition of today, The Boston Tea Party would be considered Grad Felony Vandalism, Grand Larceny, and Conspiracy to Commit Grand Larceny. Hardly terrorism. Terrorist try to kill innocents. Early Americans killed tea. People were not killed until around the time that British troops took Boston over. Until the ARMIES showed up, there was precious little killing going on other than protest killings in Boston and other nearby areas.
The idea of a terrorist is based specifically on the definition of a combatant (soldier). It is in the Geneva Convention. Read up. The definitions are specific. Falun Gong deserves to not be called terrorists for this... crackers, yes. Terrorists? NO.
I would say that both of the posts are incorrect, upon the definition of a terrorist alone. The purpose of a terrrorist is to incite fear through the act of attacking innocents or government agencies through stealth and subversion.
Pasting a message up on television across China is hardly a terrorist act by definition, because it neither attacks innocents or creates fear and widespread panic. It is a plea to change the policies of the government, not an attack on that government or its citizens. The message was NOT DANGEROUS other than stating its views.
However... we (US Citizens) often forget that we are lucky to have been born in a country where you are allowed to have opinions that may go against our current government leaders, and you don't worry about it and can speak them openly.
Great. Somewhere in America there is a guy strapping C4 to his Hyundai and speeding towards a daycare center. But as we are all becoming corporate "profit property," the Feds are more interested in stopping high end internet access to people who abuse a cable system.
America is safe tonight. Too bad the cable company could have just turned off the service, and never, ever called the police, much less the feds. After all we are talking about abusing a private contract between two parties. The cable company should have terminated the contract.
You know, I have have been screwed unnecessarily on employment contracts before... did the feds come out? Hell no! Nor why should they? Apparently I should have called, and call them the next time someone steals pens from the office supply cabinet.
In the wake of all of the things that the US has to deal with, we really need to get a defined role for these guys.
Way to spend all of that extra terrorism money that the president gave you. Real proud of this one, guys. As a newsman I hang around the FBI all the time. They just look bored. After all, America is a pretty sane place compared to many other places across the world. This raid however was way beneath them.
If only "trusted" apps running on a "trusted" operating system can play music and video, then people will buy those.
What are you talking about. Most people get all of their media from MS-untrusted apps like kazaa, gnucleus, or limewire. There are damn few trusted media content providers out there now.
As a general rule, the longer a technology is out, the cheaper and more ubiquitous it is, and the more chance of variety. Basic economics. Economic models go towards more variety, not away from it. Reagardless of what MS does.
No one is going to get me to ever buy another MS based OS. I run 98se AND I am never ever buying anything from them again.
Matter of fact, the only reason that I am even on 98se is that I want to play games. After that point changes... I'm getting a distro.
Honestly, does anyone just like the computer the way it is? I don't want my computer to assist me any more than being a transparent barrier to what I want. I want it to take dictation when I want to send a friend a note, and talk back to me when I am cooking dinner so I don't have to stare at it, and precious little else. I don't want it looking out for me. Why? Because I didn't fucking program it! Whoever's agenda programmed it, so therefore, it is not looking out for me.
This longhorn smacks of a full, legitimate, digital identity, and I am sorry, but at the end of the day it is just a dang box with wires people, not who you are. Count me out. You can't engineer happiness. The internet is a big, funny, stupid, sometimes dangerous, LIBRARY.
Yes, I play C-strike. YES, I play RtCW. And GTA3. And I like/. But cmon. Stop selling me this shit.
I don't want to be a "cyber-citizen! (TM) (all rights reserved) (ASCAP) (BMI) (MPAA)"
What I've learned is that cities are a nice place to visit and live on the outskirts of. If the computers of the world start looking like New York on Yankee's Bat Day or Hong Kong on the Chinese New Year then count me out. Don't get me wrong. Cities are a wonderful place to visit. I live on the outskirts of one, and work in it. But the more people that you pack in and personalize in a personal network, the more it will look like a city and that means the more likely you are going to:
be stuck in a ridiculous beauracracy doing simple things
more likely the equivalent of you car stereo will be lifted (this just happened today)
the more equivalent that law or rules enforcement will be unevenly taken care of and care a lot less about you
the more you will be a number- already happened
the more the lowest denominator mob mentality rules you
the more you have to put up with the angry masses
and finally, the less sunshine you see because you will be spending all fucking day on the comp paying bills and renewing car licenses for fifty God damned hours a week because you can never get a hold of a person and ask them face to face- trust me, paying bills on-line will not EVER be as easy as they say
If you think the automated phone is a pain. Just wait. If you think waiting in line at fileplanet is a pain in the ass, this is going to really take the cake... cuz they are going to fire all the tellers and have just one engineer running the system.
Hell, we all might just get so lazy that we will just check to see how much they left in your account for all the fees and taxes one day. Then you REALLY are someoene else's property.
It seems that the broadcasters are much more interested in using the digital technology to transmits six channels in the same bandwidth formerly used for one than to transmit one high definition channel.
You're exactly right... if the FCC actually lets them. That is one of the big problems we are dealing with... are they really going to decide what to do with all of this or are they using it as a crutch/money stall to let the cable/sattelite companies crush all of the local channels?
Probably the latter. They are all in bed with the cable systems, after all, they have no regulations, no requirement for the public good, and sll the money.
If the government came in and told you how to run your business like the FCC does, there would be class actions up the ying-yang. But unfortunately, these administration appointed noobs actually hold their own court with this too.
This whole "take the UHF and VHF stations and cut them up" is the entire purpose for HDTV.
You see, the FCC under the Clinton administration (although, admittedly it sounds like a Republican plan, but yes, it was the Clinton administration) wanted to take all of the non-military band and sell it off to cell phone companies and the like to make money for the government. This new taking of outside bandwidth is just Plan B after the fact that the FCC is a bunch of morons and couldn't anticipate that the cell phone industry would find a good compression scheme for the next gen of phones in under six years.
"But I thought the whole RF spectrum was the property of the people?" Someone muses in the back.
"Not when there is someone getting paid," moaned all of the broadcast engineers that had to invest MILLIONS into a non-standard "standard" that has yet to be decided... and costs the end user way too much for the promise of better TV (but not really for most people, because HD signals are so big they have multipath reception problems. Meaning this: you might have a tough time getting a HD signal anyway, at the least it is much more difficult than getting a standard analog signal, and especially in a city).
By the way, some television stations have to broadcast right now in HDTV. Unfortunately, the FCC has yet to decide what the hell that standard should be in the USA. But then again, why should the FCC decide? They (the FCC) have been getting lobster dinners, hot lobbyists, and secret funds jerking around corporate Japan (because NONE of the HD patents are owned by US companies) for years being "indecisive" about the standard. Of course, all of this added expense and lack of vender competition has made all of the local television stations that are privately owned go "belly up." TV stations are FORCED TO PAY outrageous sums of money for an outside patented system that they are unsure whether even 1,000 people have bought in the entire area.
I know a lot about this, because I am one door down from a TV engineer at a broadcast station. As they tell me, it doesn't take long to follow the money to find out where this mess all got started from.
I understand the ire of WTO protestors and people who feel similarly... I feel for them. But the world has changed a lot since Seattle. Especially in the matters of protest outside the Americas. Matter of fact, a LOT of protestors have been killed across the world since Seattle. Every time there seems to be a world anything anymore, there is activity of the Serious Bad Kind (TM). Just in the last few days, the ante has been upped for psychotic, killing activity. The psychos have really been rallying since the WTC attack.
I am pretty sure that these countermeasures are done to stop a little more than the drum circles and the occasional Starbucks window attack. The police are not as concerned about the dreadlock kids as many would think they are. Not after the mess in Spain.
If anyone is in Spain, please tell us about what is going on over their in your words... I think the/. crowd could use a spokesperson to pop up and tell us what it all means.
The reason is that the trigger must be of an uncommon frequency so that when you arm a charge, someone doesn't hit a garage door opener and blow you sky high that second. If it carries on a common frequency, the key must be unique and so that the band that you are using doesn't kill you with any "punch through" or harmonics.
Or- if you are using a simple circuit reciever... you really need to set the arming mechanism to arm a predetermined time after activation, so that it doesn't get you as you are walking away.
Oh, I noticed that there was a couple there that you said, "other than the glossy look, why?" Well, I am a professional videographer and photographer. So I let it go sometimes because I really focus on the photography, and a lot of movies like the game I think take cinematography in a whole new ground, and there is something to be said for that. So I am an image geek. I look for the cinematographer before the director, and complain to my wife that we got a shitty print in the theatre.
I would however resuggest Enemy at the Gates to you for one good reason... there is not a wasted shot in the movie, not one. It propels rather well. Also it is a challenge to add suspense to a sniper fight, and I thought it was well done.
Also, Shaolin Soccer is a movie that is done by a man that will be the next great overseas comic. He is a Hong Kong Jim Carey, and he writes his own movies. His humor is Western in style. You cannot get this in the US right now unless you import it. But if you can, it is really a sidesplitter... especially when they make fun of every kung fu movie style ever. It was an Asian blockbuster. It might be coming over via Miramax.
I totally agree with you on these movies:
The Searchers
Sea Hawk
The Maltese Falcon
African Queen
The Quiet Man (Hell yes!)
Fearless (No one ever remembers it!)
You still forgot Gone with the Wind and Casablanca, though... and you can't forget Bringing Up Baby.
The Road Warrior. Watch it again thinking you are watching a Clint Eastwood movie. Think about the narrative. Simple, effective. Ahead of its time.
Memento.
Hard Boiled.
The Usual Suspects.
Shaolin Soccer (New hilarious Hong Kong movie).
Enemy at the Gates.
The Game (Savides is the DP... awesome).
Schidler's List.
Blade Runner (Jordan Cronenwerth DP).
Chunking Express.
The Conversation.
The French Connection.
Full Metal Jacket.
Cube.
Trainspotting.
Band of Brothers Box set.
Enemy Mine (really nails human nature).
Quills.
This aspect should go down well with the Code=Speech crowd: source code (in this case a direct link) is essentially the same as a description/poem/diagram describing same.
Yes, you're right. The judge is showing that the code and the hyperlinks are a expression of the intent of the person writing. THAT SHOULD BODE WELL WITH MOST GEEKS.
But, you see, most geeks (IMHO) are radicals in their mind and want to see their world altered in their own image instead of really wanting people to act individually as they wish.
You raise a good point, but when you come down to it, you are going against their anarchist roots with such a statement. They secretly want the world to be the geek universe, where their minds are paramount, and all else is trivial. Too bad the world would rebel against them just in the same way they did against Hitler when his ideas were applied en masse.
Not to say that I don't agree with some of the geek ideals, some are really appealing, but I would rather let the world protest and then weed out what the world wants to see, instead of trying to stop railways with lethal effect.
Unfortunately, all of life is a struggle to get what you want out of the herd at the expense of the herd for yourself. That is, until you realize that THERE IS NO HERD BUT PEOPLE... PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE HAPPY AND PURSUE THEIR DREAMS AND IDEAS. Most of the geeks I know are so dejected by their mental differences between others that they see most strangers as idiots, dangerous, or worse yet some kind of meat puppet useful only to the geeks personal end.
Lets not forget non-USA distribution in these movies... after all, people across the world might not be into an American action film, but I think that people everywhere went to see The Lion King with their child worldwide. After all, it wasn't really about all things American that might turn other people off.
I am risking my Karma by saying this, but I think that Disney has some of the strongest, cleanest writing in the entertainment business... and as people like Charles Dickens amd Tolstoy understood a long time ago... a good story sells like hotcakes. I am an adult, and I read a lot, and they definitely have it, and I see Disney movies.
By the way, the new space alien one is going to be a huuuge hit. Think E.T. Think cool comedy E.T. Biiiig buuuucks.
So what about all of these terrible losses?
Well, "the movie people" also said that Forrest Gump lost money. Riiiiight. Everyone, AND I MEAN EVERYONE, saw that movie.
They do it for tax purposes. Hell, even George Lucas would say that they didn't turn a dime on any Star Wars property if it would save them on taxes... that and if the IRS wouldn't scream "AUDIT!" the moment a hilarious statement like that hit the press.
Once again, poor Disney is taking a bath on these movies, but they still seem to scrape enough money together to purchase a little television network like ABC. And Senator Hollings. He's a US Congressman, he's got to come cheap.
Gawd, I hope the poor little beggers don't go broke... what with these horrible losses and all.
Hollywood has been burned three times now: VHS, VCD, DVD. It's pretty clear that they won't adopt another, more sophisticated format without some pretty strong copy protection features.
Wow. An entire industry has been arriving in the last twenty years that makes them happy by selling first run movies weeks after release to rental shops for up to $120 US for huge profits and you say they get burned?
Funny, I wouldn't say even blockbuster would be saying that the movie industry is getting burned by them, quite the other way around.
After all, we're talking about movies here for chrissakes. You know, images on a screen? I love to watch them, but honestly, its getting a little ridiculous with the prices and schemes.
Screwed by DVD? You honestly haven't noticed that most people cannot record DVDs yet, have you? Matter of fact, studios encourage DVD. So what are you talking about?
You might also notice that the people that make no real important product, and make fantastic money at it insulate themselves with lawyers.
Here's some examples: Porn. Cigarettes. Television and movies. Drug dealers. Some Software.
They are going to use lawyers and FUD. They love them. Get used to it.
Here's how you play! If you can be the first one to slide this story again under the nose of the slashdot editors, I will personally send you five whole whopping bucks!
No purchase necessary! Eneter as often as you like... void where prohibited.
Trains in America? You have never been to the US, have you? I have been all over the US my whole life, NEVER TOOK A TRAIN.
That is the most Brit-centric comment I have ever heard. Honestly, the US railway system (AmTrack) has really precious little to do with the government other than grabbing riding priveledges off of private rail systems.
Oh, and the difference between Bush and Moussolini, and your little ridiculous, unfounded, General Anti-American Commie Nutter Beliefs(TM), is that Bush is trying to save his people instead of killing them outright in an angry, syphillitic haze.
I highly, highly doubt that George Bush will do things so horrible like Moussolini that he will end up strung up in front of his parliament so that the populace will definitely know he is dead. Quite the contrary, he'll probably get a few statues out of it, and a library. Maybe a monument.
That was because he will be remembered as one who tried to stop the death of others (and especially his citizens), instead of encouraging it.
SO, I would just like to say this on behalf of all the people that live in countries with no real freedoms...
Go screw yourself and your left wing, centralized governments that make all of the decisions for me and take all of my earnings to do it.
I mean it. Screw you and your ridiculous Utopia. There is a reason why they call it Utopia.
Slashdot Mirror
Poster puts on BIG CONSPIRACY HAT (TM)...
Think about this.
The RIAA has recently got the DDOS idea.
Then they copmplain about DDOS attacks.
Then they go to the authorities for help.
Attacking all the while.
Who's to say it wasn't them doing it to their own useless site and makign their own examples all along?
They can now effectively make their own crisis, and propagate it as much as they want. Manufacture their own real world crisis and make a million examples of it. Bolster their own statistics. Take down the net until we all have to have a new, copyright secured internet.
do they really tell us more about how the brain works? I don't think so - they mostly push the envelope in the field of pattern recognition and imitation.
So pattern recognition and imitation are not considered a part of intelligence now?
Wow. I better call my friends at every elementary school on the planet and tell them to radically change their teaching style.
Oh, my GOD! I got to the server, and there was no response.
We're all going to die.
Reagan denounced the Soviet Union as the "Evil Empire" because of a number of things. They stopped travellers and demanded to see ID/papers/etc. The U.S. is doing that now.
/. stretches of belief of all time. Honestly, the USA today and the Soviet Empire are similar? Are you getting moved to North Dakota because you hold a dissenting opinion? Are you getting a state-run occupation given to you? I THINK NOT.
This has to be one of the greatest
Does the current US gov't not let you go from state to state without papers? It is a little different, I would say. The only thing that you have to stop for in the US is if you are hauling cargo, and you have to make sure that you don't break bridges and roads with oversized roads.
They stopped travellers and demanded to see ID/papers/etc.
Well, do you know of a nation that DOES NOT DO THAT? I went to Cozumel, Mexico, a resort island with a planeload of yankees the other day. A man in green fatigues with a rifle was the first person I saw off the plane. IT IS A RESORT ISLAND FOR TOURISTS. Every nation does this. The USA for one had NO REASON TO STICK MILITARY AT THE AIRPORTS BEFORE SEPT. 11. They do now.
They controlled information flow and communications. The U.S. is doing that now.
I am a news photographer for FOX. My best friend at work went to Afghanistan. They could go wherever they pleased IN A WAR ZONE. I have no concept of what you are talking about nor any knowledge of what you claim, but I have videotape in my personal possesion to prove you're lying. If you are saying that the government and I are in bed together, and that I am doing everything in my power to control information to you, then you are a stone cold idiot. I work for an independent news organization.
I am not their "friend." Both sides understand the issues that we bring up.
DO YOU EVEN LIVE IN THE USA OR KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE USA ENOUGH TO MAKE THESE KINDS OF STATEMENTS? Apparently not. So take all of your crap karma and pointless, uninformed, anti-USA rhetoric and look up some information before you and your little revolutionista friends start spouting "facts."
Although this is a stretch, I'll get in on this one, because the humanistic issues are astounding. War involves death and destruction, but honestly, it also involves some morals, even to win.
Honestly, the object of war is defeating one's enemies, not destroying them utterly. Creating a machine that might not have sympathy for non-combattants, personal property, innocent victims, or even animals scurrying away seems like a terrible idea. And an utter waste.
Without the concept of losses on your side, you see total coquest as the only way. Total conquest can mean total death. Here is a short version of my argument:
Mechanical weapons have pinned down an group, and that group decides to surrender. The person or entity on the other side of that machine feels no threat to his life, so like an execution, they might just "pull the switch" on them. WHY? It is a colder decision... or that decision is automated for "no quarter" fighting.
Either way, you are not going to feel the sympathy required to cut a break surrendering in battle if you are removed from it. You might let a group surrender if you are getting bullets over the top of your head too, but I find that less likely that you would let them surrender if you were making a decision in a air-conditioned military building in a suburb.
However, if you made them impenetrable pacifying machines instead a weapons platform, then that is an idea. Robots might be used for capture, but using them to kill sounds dreadful.
If the test subjects in the article play anywhere from two to seven hours a day of video games, then either they are on the payroll of the research full time and this is legitimate, or they are holding regular jobs and NOT GETTING ANY SLEEP.
C W-Quake-Doom binge and pulled out with a fresh brain? Yeah, right. No one is getting any stupider because of the internet, video games, or television. Perhaps, AND I AM JUST GOING OUT ON A LIMB HERE, maybe there is a correlation between sleep deprivation and decreased Beta wave activity.
I mean, honestly, how many of us have spent waaaaay too many hours blowing out our REM sleep time and come to work fresh and ready to go?
Seven hours a day! How many of us have not gone on a C&C/Warcraft-Starcraft/Counterstrike/Evercrack/RT
Funny, what do you think happened during our war of independence? Surely all of our soldiers in the war were terrorists. I'm sure had the events taken place a few hundred years later you would see us doing similar things as you see here.
The soldiers for the US War of Independence were not terrorists. They were declared combatants fighting for an open and stated (albeit new) government entity and represented the majority opinion of its people. It was a militia. It was open war. They were not attacking civilians. They were attacking military targets to end a conflict.
Also, by the definition of today, The Boston Tea Party would be considered Grad Felony Vandalism, Grand Larceny, and Conspiracy to Commit Grand Larceny. Hardly terrorism. Terrorist try to kill innocents. Early Americans killed tea. People were not killed until around the time that British troops took Boston over. Until the ARMIES showed up, there was precious little killing going on other than protest killings in Boston and other nearby areas.
The idea of a terrorist is based specifically on the definition of a combatant (soldier). It is in the Geneva Convention. Read up. The definitions are specific. Falun Gong deserves to not be called terrorists for this... crackers, yes. Terrorists? NO.
I would say that both of the posts are incorrect, upon the definition of a terrorist alone. The purpose of a terrrorist is to incite fear through the act of attacking innocents or government agencies through stealth and subversion.
Pasting a message up on television across China is hardly a terrorist act by definition, because it neither attacks innocents or creates fear and widespread panic. It is a plea to change the policies of the government, not an attack on that government or its citizens. The message was NOT DANGEROUS other than stating its views.
However... we (US Citizens) often forget that we are lucky to have been born in a country where you are allowed to have opinions that may go against our current government leaders, and you don't worry about it and can speak them openly.
In China, stating your views can get you killed.
That's right, Bill has finagled China into accepting green paper with his face on it!
Redeemable for all sorts of quality MS video games.
Great. Somewhere in America there is a guy strapping C4 to his Hyundai and speeding towards a daycare center. But as we are all becoming corporate "profit property," the Feds are more interested in stopping high end internet access to people who abuse a cable system.
America is safe tonight. Too bad the cable company could have just turned off the service, and never, ever called the police, much less the feds. After all we are talking about abusing a private contract between two parties. The cable company should have terminated the contract.
You know, I have have been screwed unnecessarily on employment contracts before... did the feds come out? Hell no! Nor why should they? Apparently I should have called, and call them the next time someone steals pens from the office supply cabinet.
In the wake of all of the things that the US has to deal with, we really need to get a defined role for these guys.
Way to spend all of that extra terrorism money that the president gave you. Real proud of this one, guys. As a newsman I hang around the FBI all the time. They just look bored. After all, America is a pretty sane place compared to many other places across the world. This raid however was way beneath them.
If only "trusted" apps running on a "trusted" operating system can play music and video, then people will buy those.
What are you talking about. Most people get all of their media from MS-untrusted apps like kazaa, gnucleus, or limewire. There are damn few trusted media content providers out there now.
As a general rule, the longer a technology is out, the cheaper and more ubiquitous it is, and the more chance of variety. Basic economics. Economic models go towards more variety, not away from it. Reagardless of what MS does.
No one is going to get me to ever buy another MS based OS. I run 98se AND I am never ever buying anything from them again.
Matter of fact, the only reason that I am even on 98se is that I want to play games. After that point changes... I'm getting a distro.
Here's another funfact instead of a inflated $60 billion:
Unrealistic ideas and the opinion that computers could solve all problems cost the American people the entire freaking economy in the last two years.
Honestly, does anyone just like the computer the way it is? I don't want my computer to assist me any more than being a transparent barrier to what I want. I want it to take dictation when I want to send a friend a note, and talk back to me when I am cooking dinner so I don't have to stare at it, and precious little else. I don't want it looking out for me. Why? Because I didn't fucking program it! Whoever's agenda programmed it, so therefore, it is not looking out for me.
/. But cmon. Stop selling me this shit.
This longhorn smacks of a full, legitimate, digital identity, and I am sorry, but at the end of the day it is just a dang box with wires people, not who you are. Count me out. You can't engineer happiness. The internet is a big, funny, stupid, sometimes dangerous, LIBRARY.
Yes, I play C-strike. YES, I play RtCW. And GTA3. And I like
I don't want to be a "cyber-citizen! (TM) (all rights reserved) (ASCAP) (BMI) (MPAA)"
What I've learned is that cities are a nice place to visit and live on the outskirts of. If the computers of the world start looking like New York on Yankee's Bat Day or Hong Kong on the Chinese New Year then count me out. Don't get me wrong. Cities are a wonderful place to visit. I live on the outskirts of one, and work in it. But the more people that you pack in and personalize in a personal network, the more it will look like a city and that means the more likely you are going to:
be stuck in a ridiculous beauracracy doing simple things
more likely the equivalent of you car stereo will be lifted (this just happened today)
the more equivalent that law or rules enforcement will be unevenly taken care of and care a lot less about you
the more you will be a number- already happened
the more the lowest denominator mob mentality rules you
the more you have to put up with the angry masses
and finally, the less sunshine you see because you will be spending all fucking day on the comp paying bills and renewing car licenses for fifty God damned hours a week because you can never get a hold of a person and ask them face to face- trust me, paying bills on-line will not EVER be as easy as they say
If you think the automated phone is a pain. Just wait. If you think waiting in line at fileplanet is a pain in the ass, this is going to really take the cake... cuz they are going to fire all the tellers and have just one engineer running the system.
Hell, we all might just get so lazy that we will just check to see how much they left in your account for all the fees and taxes one day. Then you REALLY are someoene else's property.
It seems that the broadcasters are much more interested in using the digital technology to transmits six channels in the same bandwidth formerly used for one than to transmit one high definition channel.
You're exactly right... if the FCC actually lets them. That is one of the big problems we are dealing with... are they really going to decide what to do with all of this or are they using it as a crutch/money stall to let the cable/sattelite companies crush all of the local channels?
Probably the latter. They are all in bed with the cable systems, after all, they have no regulations, no requirement for the public good, and sll the money.
If the government came in and told you how to run your business like the FCC does, there would be class actions up the ying-yang. But unfortunately, these administration appointed noobs actually hold their own court with this too.
This whole "take the UHF and VHF stations and cut them up" is the entire purpose for HDTV.
You see, the FCC under the Clinton administration (although, admittedly it sounds like a Republican plan, but yes, it was the Clinton administration) wanted to take all of the non-military band and sell it off to cell phone companies and the like to make money for the government. This new taking of outside bandwidth is just Plan B after the fact that the FCC is a bunch of morons and couldn't anticipate that the cell phone industry would find a good compression scheme for the next gen of phones in under six years.
"But I thought the whole RF spectrum was the property of the people?" Someone muses in the back.
"Not when there is someone getting paid," moaned all of the broadcast engineers that had to invest MILLIONS into a non-standard "standard" that has yet to be decided... and costs the end user way too much for the promise of better TV (but not really for most people, because HD signals are so big they have multipath reception problems. Meaning this: you might have a tough time getting a HD signal anyway, at the least it is much more difficult than getting a standard analog signal, and especially in a city).
By the way, some television stations have to broadcast right now in HDTV. Unfortunately, the FCC has yet to decide what the hell that standard should be in the USA. But then again, why should the FCC decide? They (the FCC) have been getting lobster dinners, hot lobbyists, and secret funds jerking around corporate Japan (because NONE of the HD patents are owned by US companies) for years being "indecisive" about the standard. Of course, all of this added expense and lack of vender competition has made all of the local television stations that are privately owned go "belly up." TV stations are FORCED TO PAY outrageous sums of money for an outside patented system that they are unsure whether even 1,000 people have bought in the entire area.
I know a lot about this, because I am one door down from a TV engineer at a broadcast station. As they tell me, it doesn't take long to follow the money to find out where this mess all got started from.
TRADER: Honestly, how can you tell if you have health insurance that is good through eBay?
eBay SUPPORT: There is a BIG GOLD STAR next to their name.
TRADER: Oh. Okay... cool. Fine by me.
Just a little something for your noodle...
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/06/22/spai
I understand the ire of WTO protestors and people who feel similarly... I feel for them. But the world has changed a lot since Seattle. Especially in the matters of protest outside the Americas. Matter of fact, a LOT of protestors have been killed across the world since Seattle. Every time there seems to be a world anything anymore, there is activity of the Serious Bad Kind (TM). Just in the last few days, the ante has been upped for psychotic, killing activity. The psychos have really been rallying since the WTC attack.
I am pretty sure that these countermeasures are done to stop a little more than the drum circles and the occasional Starbucks window attack. The police are not as concerned about the dreadlock kids as many would think they are. Not after the mess in Spain.
If anyone is in Spain, please tell us about what is going on over their in your words... I think the
The earlier post is correct.
The reason is that the trigger must be of an uncommon frequency so that when you arm a charge, someone doesn't hit a garage door opener and blow you sky high that second. If it carries on a common frequency, the key must be unique and so that the band that you are using doesn't kill you with any "punch through" or harmonics.
Or- if you are using a simple circuit reciever... you really need to set the arming mechanism to arm a predetermined time after activation, so that it doesn't get you as you are walking away.
I had a friend in the army. I am not a kook.
Yeah, I see a few there...
Oh, I noticed that there was a couple there that you said, "other than the glossy look, why?" Well, I am a professional videographer and photographer. So I let it go sometimes because I really focus on the photography, and a lot of movies like the game I think take cinematography in a whole new ground, and there is something to be said for that. So I am an image geek. I look for the cinematographer before the director, and complain to my wife that we got a shitty print in the theatre.
I would however resuggest Enemy at the Gates to you for one good reason... there is not a wasted shot in the movie, not one. It propels rather well. Also it is a challenge to add suspense to a sniper fight, and I thought it was well done.
Also, Shaolin Soccer is a movie that is done by a man that will be the next great overseas comic.
He is a Hong Kong Jim Carey, and he writes his own movies. His humor is Western in style. You cannot get this in the US right now unless you import it. But if you can, it is really a sidesplitter... especially when they make fun of every kung fu movie style ever. It was an Asian blockbuster. It might be coming over via Miramax.
I totally agree with you on these movies:
The Searchers
Sea Hawk
The Maltese Falcon
African Queen
The Quiet Man (Hell yes!)
Fearless (No one ever remembers it!)
You still forgot Gone with the Wind and Casablanca, though... and you can't forget Bringing Up Baby.
Fight Club. Obvious reasons.
The Road Warrior. Watch it again thinking you are watching a Clint Eastwood movie. Think about the narrative. Simple, effective. Ahead of its time.
Memento.
Hard Boiled.
The Usual Suspects.
Shaolin Soccer (New hilarious Hong Kong movie).
Enemy at the Gates.
The Game (Savides is the DP... awesome).
Schidler's List.
Blade Runner (Jordan Cronenwerth DP).
Chunking Express.
The Conversation.
The French Connection.
Full Metal Jacket.
Cube.
Trainspotting.
Band of Brothers Box set.
Enemy Mine (really nails human nature).
Quills.
Those are just a few.
This aspect should go down well with the Code=Speech crowd: source code (in this case a direct link) is essentially the same as a description/poem/diagram describing same.
Yes, you're right. The judge is showing that the code and the hyperlinks are a expression of the intent of the person writing. THAT SHOULD BODE WELL WITH MOST GEEKS.
But, you see, most geeks (IMHO) are radicals in their mind and want to see their world altered in their own image instead of really wanting people to act individually as they wish.
You raise a good point, but when you come down to it, you are going against their anarchist roots with such a statement. They secretly want the world to be the geek universe, where their minds are paramount, and all else is trivial. Too bad the world would rebel against them just in the same way they did against Hitler when his ideas were applied en masse.
Not to say that I don't agree with some of the geek ideals, some are really appealing, but I would rather let the world protest and then weed out what the world wants to see, instead of trying to stop railways with lethal effect.
Unfortunately, all of life is a struggle to get what you want out of the herd at the expense of the herd for yourself. That is, until you realize that THERE IS NO HERD BUT PEOPLE... PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE HAPPY AND PURSUE THEIR DREAMS AND IDEAS. Most of the geeks I know are so dejected by their mental differences between others that they see most strangers as idiots, dangerous, or worse yet some kind of meat puppet useful only to the geeks personal end.
Lets not forget non-USA distribution in these movies... after all, people across the world might not be into an American action film, but I think that people everywhere went to see The Lion King with their child worldwide. After all, it wasn't really about all things American that might turn other people off.
I am risking my Karma by saying this, but I think that Disney has some of the strongest, cleanest writing in the entertainment business... and as people like Charles Dickens amd Tolstoy understood a long time ago... a good story sells like hotcakes. I am an adult, and I read a lot, and they definitely have it, and I see Disney movies.
By the way, the new space alien one is going to be a huuuge hit. Think E.T. Think cool comedy E.T. Biiiig buuuucks.
So what about all of these terrible losses?
Well, "the movie people" also said that Forrest Gump lost money. Riiiiight. Everyone, AND I MEAN EVERYONE, saw that movie.
They do it for tax purposes. Hell, even George Lucas would say that they didn't turn a dime on any Star Wars property if it would save them on taxes... that and if the IRS wouldn't scream "AUDIT!" the moment a hilarious statement like that hit the press.
Once again, poor Disney is taking a bath on these movies, but they still seem to scrape enough money together to purchase a little television network like ABC. And Senator Hollings. He's a US Congressman, he's got to come cheap.
Gawd, I hope the poor little beggers don't go broke... what with these horrible losses and all.
'Bout time God did something about all of this patent nonsense. I was getting worried.
Hollywood has been burned three times now: VHS, VCD, DVD. It's pretty clear that they won't adopt another, more sophisticated format without some pretty strong copy protection features.
Wow. An entire industry has been arriving in the last twenty years that makes them happy by selling first run movies weeks after release to rental shops for up to $120 US for huge profits and you say they get burned?
Funny, I wouldn't say even blockbuster would be saying that the movie industry is getting burned by them, quite the other way around.
After all, we're talking about movies here for chrissakes. You know, images on a screen? I love to watch them, but honestly, its getting a little ridiculous with the prices and schemes.
Screwed by DVD? You honestly haven't noticed that most people cannot record DVDs yet, have you?
Matter of fact, studios encourage DVD. So what are you talking about?
You might also notice that the people that make no real important product, and make fantastic money at it insulate themselves with lawyers.
Here's some examples: Porn. Cigarettes. Television and movies. Drug dealers. Some Software.
They are going to use lawyers and FUD. They love them. Get used to it.
Here's how you play! If you can be the first one to slide this story again under the nose of the slashdot editors, I will personally send you five whole whopping bucks!
No purchase necessary! Eneter as often as you like... void where prohibited.
Trains in America? You have never been to the US, have you? I have been all over the US my whole life, NEVER TOOK A TRAIN.
That is the most Brit-centric comment I have ever heard. Honestly, the US railway system (AmTrack) has really precious little to do with the government other than grabbing riding priveledges off of private rail systems.
Oh, and the difference between Bush and Moussolini, and your little ridiculous, unfounded, General Anti-American Commie Nutter Beliefs(TM), is that Bush is trying to save his people instead of killing them outright in an angry, syphillitic haze.
I highly, highly doubt that George Bush will do things so horrible like Moussolini that he will end up strung up in front of his parliament so that the populace will definitely know he is dead. Quite the contrary, he'll probably get a few statues out of it, and a library. Maybe a monument.
That was because he will be remembered as one who tried to stop the death of others (and especially his citizens), instead of encouraging it.
SO, I would just like to say this on behalf of all the people that live in countries with no real freedoms...
Go screw yourself and your left wing, centralized governments that make all of the decisions for me and take all of my earnings to do it.
I mean it. Screw you and your ridiculous Utopia. There is a reason why they call it Utopia.
BECAUSE IT DOESN'T EXSIST.